The Maldives Democratic Party has publicly expressed support for the government’s nomination of three female judges, despite protests by the party’s own religious right. Many will welcome this renewed commitment to gender equality, especially in view of the party’s deplorable response to the controversy its assistant secretary-general Aishath Aniya found herself in earlier in the year.

In March, Aniya wrote a scathing article in Minivan News Daily, in which she criticized self-proclaimed religious know-alls for trying to push women backwards through misogynistic interpretations of Islam. She suggested that if women had to wear headgear in order to save men from temptation, then men too should don the buruga to save homosexual males from similar temptation.

The immediate reactions to the article were exclusively by men. The Islamic Democratic Party’s Umar Naseer called for the closure of Minivan News Daily, but added that if Aniya repented he would withdraw the call. The pro-government website Fact Maldives went even further. An article published by Aboo Ayyoob in 25 March 2007 called for Aniya’s death, describing her as the “Salman Rushdie of the Maldives”. The MDP did not condemn the incite to murder nor, to my knowledge, did the police make any attempt to seek out the author of this piece and to bring them to justice.

Indeed, much of the protest against Aniya was from within the party. The party’s Islamic consultative council issued a fatwa calling for her to resign and repent. Others, like Sappe, MDP co-founder and editor of the online Dhivehi Observer, appeared not so much offended by the article as much as her audacity to write it while in a party job.

The sentiment is echoed by “reformist” journalist Ali Rasheed. In a pompous letter to the Minivan News online, he admitted his ignorance of religious matters pronouncing, nevertheless, that Aniya had “stepped outside the pale Islam”. Rasheed, like most people offended by the article, automatically equates the rejection of the buruga with a rejection of Islam. Not comprehending that Aniya was referring to the temptation to steal with her ironic remark that merchandise in the supermarket should be covered, he also declared: “That which is soft does not grow hard at the sight of goods in a shop window.”

With all the hostility she confronted, much of it from her own party, Aniya went into hiding. As the MDP tried its best to disassociate itself from her, she had no choice but to resign from her post as assistant secretary general. The party’s appalling treatment of Aniya is reflected in Sappe’s admonishment of her: “Sacrificing you for the sake of the party, is the wisest and tactfully most appropriate thing to do, as far as I and many of my associates are concerned.”

The MDP was displaying how spineless it is as the religious right bullies its way across the country. For some reason, the issue always at the top of their agenda appears to be women’s clothing. A commentator has observed that no Adhalath Party meeting is complete without a reference to female dress code. Even the parliament has not been immune. Debates on women’s garments, as well as verbal sexual harassment of female members by the male majority, are commonplace. At the constitutional assembly, members affiliated to the MDP have publicly stated that women are intellectually inferior to men. Because the party has not rejected these statements we, can only assume they reflect its own thinking.

It is hard to ignore the link between rising extremism and an attempt to lower the status of women. At the heart of Aniya’s case is that a bunch of sexist backwards are unable to deal with a timely challenge by a brave and spirited young woman, who is probably fed up of the sexual harassment she faces daily and of being told what to wear by men. What is shocking about the whole episode is that the MDP chose to sell its stated ideals of freedom of expression, and human rights to appease a few misogynistic mullahs.

But now there are signs that the MDP is changing its tunes. Chairman Anni has called the resignation of Sheikh Fareed from the party as the “silver lining” of the Aniya controversy. Meanwhile, Adam Naseem of the Islamic consultative council is threatening to leave the party due to its support of female judges, which he claims “contradicts Islamic law.” But Anni is standing firm this time around: “The policies of our party are very clear from our last Congress and also from our constitution. All men [a telling psychological slip or a genuine mistake?] are created equal.”

Aniya is still working as hard as ever for the party which threw her to the wolves when she needed its support most.